Wines from a blend of different vineyards of the estate Casa Los Frailes. Fresh, fluid, straight wines expressing the personality of our Meditteranean Monastrell.

Los Frailes

CALIZA

Los Frailes

DOLOMITAS

Los Frailes

RUBIFICADO

1771

Casa los Frailes

Los Frailes Caliza

Monastrell at the most extreme calcareous soils of the estate

Wine description
The common denominator of the Estate are the calcareous soils. Looking for the most extreme calcareous-limestone, the ochrest (ochre rendzines ) and the poorest soil is where we found these monastrell vines. In order to respect this personality, we decided to elaborate the wine as the Friars (los Frailes) did at the Estate, limiting to minimum the intervention at the winery and using the same concrete deposits and anfors as the friars used a long time ago.

Soils
Single vineyard called “La parada de tordos” (“Thrush stop”). 600 meters over sea level. Limestones and sandy soils (ochre rendzina). They are very poor soils due to rich presence of limestone. However, iron offsets the effect of limestone and the good levels of magnesium allow good grape ripening and keep also good acidity levels (thanks to potassium). The fresh balance of this monastrell is due to this soil. Bush vines planted in 1978 in dry agriculture.

Vinification
The harvest is manual. The work at the winery is limited to a minimum: wild yeasts, light battonages, minimum amount of sulphites and light filtration. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in old concrete deposits from the c. XVIII where the friars used to elaborate wine. Aging the wine for 10 months in old concrete deposits and anfors.

Vintage 2016
It was a very dry winter, only 50mm of rainfall. However, it was in Spring when very precise and well distributed rains came. Thanks to these rains, the vineyard grew very strong and vigorous, forcing an extreme green pruning to reserve some forces for the end of the cycle.
The summer was very dry, however no heat wave impacted us being the average temperatures lower than usual, 24ºC. The draught went on during the months of June and July allowing us only to treat with sulphur and copper once.